Morning Trading, News -- March 25, 2024

Locator: 46836NEWS.

And still pays 6%:

And still pays 4%

And still pays over 4%:

This is the company that has surprised me, MPC:

Trump: gets break. The state gives Trump another 10 days and reduces the "bond" to $175 million. As always, details need to be fact-checked. See disclaimers.

First up: Fisker! Wow, the bad news never ends. Shares down 25% on this news: Fisker says talks with automaker have ended. 

From the link:

Fisker said its negotiations for some kind of tie-up with a large automaker have broken down, heightening concerns about the electric-vehicle startup’s financial situation.

The company said the unnamed automaker ended talks last week.

Fisker is weighing strategic alternatives, including in- or-out-of-court restructurings and the sale of assets.

Due to the termination of the negotiations, Fisker said it won’t be able to meet a closing condition of a $150 million financing commitment that it had entered into with an investor earlier this month.

Fisker said it plans to seek a waiver of the condition. Shares of Fisker tumbled 28% in morning trading. The stock has declined 95% year to date. Fisker earlier this month said it would pause production for six weeks after warning last month that there was “substantial doubt” about its ability to stay in business.

Hospitals adding "facility" fees: link here.

Tim Ebel’s visit with an ear, nose and throat specialist at an Ohio clinic last October came to $348. At the same time, he got a second bill for $645.

The hospital system that owns the Avon, Ohio, clinic had charged him separately for use of the office where he met his physician.

It is what is known as a facility fee, which included overhead for the system’s hospitals though Ebel hadn’t set foot in one. His wife, Kelly Ebel, tried to get the system, University Hospitals, to waive or mark down the fee.

It refused. “When they do something like this, to her and I, it’s not fair,” Tim Ebel said. “This is not how you bring down medical costs in this country.”

Hospitals are adding billions of dollars in facility fees to medical bills for routine care in outpatient centers they own. Once an annoyance, the fees are now pervasive, and in some places they are becoming nearly impossible to avoid, data compiled for The Wall Street Journal show. The fees are spreading as hospitals press on with acquisitions, snapping up medical groups and tacking on the additional charges. 

Fast food in California: workers earning more than ever -- then get laid off. Link here. Minimum wage in California for fast food: $20 / hour starting April 1 -- not an April Fool's joke.

• My hunch, two things are going to change rapidly:
• change in operating hours;
• why are pizza chains open 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.?
• or they stay open, but no delivery in "off-hours"
  
• delivery fees will increase significantly, and AI may adjust (time of ordering; size of order; delivery distance; loyalty of customer;